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Aug
14

Postscript

by

Almost from the moment we got off our bikes on Tuesday at Lands End I have been asked “What next?”

For now I am not concerning myself with the next challenge (and I know myself well enough to know that there will be one – I just don’t know what it is yet!) Instead I will have a few weeks devoted to things other than training for something. That is not to say that I won’t be back on my bike any time soon. I will. I have decided that I really quite enjoy the effort of turning pedals and getting from A to B under your own steam. I intend to treat myself to my 30 mile flat training route around the back roads of West Lancashire and Southport before too long – without panniers! It is a nice route and it will be good just to enjoy the ride without being conscious of the fact that I am training for something.

One other curious thing that I have noticed, particularly over the last couple of weeks, is just how attached you become to your bike! When you are a kid and you have a bike it represents your freedom, the ability to get away from your home and your parents on your own. To be with your friends and to visit places without reliance on transport from others. And for that reason you become fond of your bike and very attached to it. I remember my first (non-stabiliser) bike. I gave it a name and was very upset when I outgrew it. The upset was lessened significantly by the nice shiny new bike waiting to take it’s place, but you get what I mean!!? Over the last couple of weeks my trusty Trek hybrid has been like a good friend. Not only has it supported my 15 stone bulk in relative comfort for over 900 miles, it has done so without any complaint at all! Unusually none of us on this ride suffered any type of mechanical failure whatsoever. Not even a puncture. Nothing! Which is pretty remarkable. It makes me feel that I should say “thank you” to my bike! And in truth I am grateful to it for being able to take everything that I have thrown at it over the last two weeks. It has been regularly soaked, baked in hot sun (albeit very infrequently!) and even dropped (by Vince!) It has ridden up some incredible hills and down some terrifying ones too! And it has suffered abuse from some truly shocking roads!!! All without a single problem.

Thank you, Trek!

So today I gave my bike a good clean! It was the sort of clean that I felt it deserved. It took me a good hour or so. My wife said that if I cleaned it any more she would start calling me ‘Vince’ (since anyone who knows Vince will appreciate that he would actually LICK his bike clean if he thought that it would get more dirt off!!!) I already know that like mine, Vince’s bike will be back in his garage, gleaming, as I type this! If I am being honest, I have a sneaking suspicion that Carl’s bike will not get as good treatment and it is more likely that there will be a dirty, unloved but well ridden Boardman hybrid on eBay sometime soon….!!!

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